


In Absentia

by aserenitatum



Series: Rare Pair Week 2018 [5]
Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F, High School, High School Teachers, PP Rare Pair Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-20 21:14:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14269671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aserenitatum/pseuds/aserenitatum
Summary: An innocent misunderstanding that spirals hilariously out of control.aka the Stacie and Aubrey as high school teachers AU you never knew you neededFor the Pitch Perfect Rare Pair Week prompt: "High School"





	In Absentia

**Author's Note:**

> this one's for Juffrouw Cameron and Meneer Flanegin: I'm sorry I made your lives a living hell when I was in HS. Pls forgive me.

It starts off as an innocent misunderstanding that spirals spectacularly and hilariously out of control. 

 

* * *

 

Aubrey has been an English teacher at Sunshine Valley High School for four years when Stacie starts working there. Stacie teaches Physics, and they’re in different departments so there’s no reason for them to have any contact at school. Within her first few weeks, Stacie starts hearing about Aubrey Posen’s reputation for being a merciless ice bitch and Aubrey picks up chatter about Stacie Conrad, the hot new female (!) Physics teacher, from her students. 

 

* * *

 

Stacie isn’t sure how Chloe becomes her friend exactly, but she’s not one to complain. She’s told that Chloe Beale transcends departments and is friendly with almost everybody who teaches at the high school, her bright personality and easy charm hard to resist. Stacie accidentally implies one day that her only friends at school are the fragile male science teachers and Chloe decides that she needs more female work friends and that the school-wide faculty meeting is the perfect place to carry out this mission. 

She drags Stacie along to a table of what she calls “my girls” and Stacie smiles when she sees Aubrey there.  

“Sit, sit,” Chloe urges, so Stacie drops down onto the only chair available, which turns out to be between Aubrey and a short brunette.  

Chloe introduces her to the women, who in turns introduce themselves. It’s actually a really nice group of women, Stacie has to admit, especially when the brunette next to her—Beca?—starts making sarcastic remarks during the principal’s presentation.  

After the meeting, the women linger around to talk and they’re laughing about something when Chloe suddenly turns to Stacie.  

“Oh! I know this is way out there, but I know this guy I think you’d be super into, and…” Chloe rattles on, but Stacie is too surprised by the words to immediately react.  

“Chloe, I’m married,” Stacie interrupts, and Chloe frowns.  

“What?”  

“I’m married,” Stacie repeats, pulls the long necklace she’s wearing out from under her blouse and shows them the engagement and wedding ring dangling from the chain.  

“Oh!” Chloe says, smiling again. “That’s great! I just figured, since you don’t wear a ring.”  

“I don’t want to risk damage to them when I do experiments with my students,” Stacie explains even though she doesn’t need to because Chloe’s smiling and nodding.  

“Well, nevermind the guy then, huh?” Chloe says, and a ripple of laughter goes through the group. 

“Are you all single?” Stacie asks, but Chloe’s already shaking her head.  

“Beca, Flo and I are single. Cynthia Rose is engaged and Aubrey’s married, we think.”  

“You’re not sure?” Stacie asks incredulously and Aubrey laughs, the rest of the women joining her.  

“She says she’s married, but we’ve never met her husband,” Flo explains.  

“I think she’s a big, fat liar,” Beca says, crossing her arms and Aubrey glares at her.  

“Who you calling fat, hobbit?”  

“You just completely glossed over the lying part, didn’t you, Elsa?” Beca throws back.  

“It’s just a joke we make about Aubrey being private,” Cynthia Rose says as a way to break up the discussion and Stacie nods in understanding. 

 

* * *

 

Chloe is happy to see Stacie getting along nicely with her friends, and more often than not Stacie ends up having lunch with all of them as opposed to eating with the science teachers. Chloe loves seeing how easily Aubrey opens up to Stacie, and how quickly Stacie is with bringing down Aubrey’s walls and the two become close very quickly, and Chloe declares her mission to get Stacie a new friend a success. 

 

* * *

 

Valentine’s Day rolls around and the principal has given up on security after the 4th delivery boy with oddly specific instructions swings by the main office asking permission to complete a delivery, so when a tall, young, attractive man in army fatigues stands in front of the principal with a bouquet of flowers, the principal barely looks up before sighing and waving the man away with “just sign the log and go.” 

The man gets lost on the way, though, and after one too many students eye him in confusion, he knocks on the open door of the first classroom he sees.  

“Hi, I’m looking for Aubrey Posen?”  

Flo looks at him with wide eyes when she hears the words, a giddy smile taking over her face.  

“I can take you,” she offers and the man smiles. She turns to the class and instructs, “hagan sus ejercisios.”  

Unbeknownst to them, but not at all surprisingly, the room erupts into gossip as soon as they leave. Flo leads Tall Army Hunk to Aubrey’s classroom, but she takes the long way around, making sure to pass by the music department (specifically, Chloe’s classroom) and the social studies department (Cynthia Rose’s classroom).  

“Right here,” Flo says when they finally reach the English department and she points to Aubrey’s open door and the man smiles at her, thanks her.  

As soon as he goes into the classroom, Flo reaches for her phone and texts Chloe.  

“Delivery?” Tall Army Hunk says, knocking on the frame of the door, and Aubrey doesn’t even look up.  

“Go ahead.”  

The classroom is loud with whispers and hushed tones, looking between Aubrey and Tall Army Hunk.  

“Delivery for Aubrey Posen,” he says, and she finally looks up, frowning.  

Her face transforms when she recognises him, and she lights up, already rounding the desk.  

“What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Iraq!” she says happily, and he returns the smile, wraps Aubrey up in a tight hug when she flies into his arms.  

“Surprise!” he says and she can’t stop smiling. “Delivery,” he repeats pointedly when they pull apart, and a few students laugh.  

“I love them, thank you,” Aubrey says, taking the flowers from him with an eye roll. “I can’t believe you’re here.”  

“Believe it.”

She’s smiling at him, so happy, and Aubrey suddenly remembers where they are, looks around the classroom and all the students avoid looking at her. 

Tall Army Hunk looks around as well, grins. “I’ll catch you at home later?” he asks and she smiles, nods.  

“Definitely.”  

“Bye Aubrey,” he says, leans in and gives her another quick hug.  

Aubrey can’t wipe the smile off her face, and she doesn’t try to when she sees how much it freaks out her students. She hears chatter just outside her door and when she walks over to see what—or who—it is, she finds Chloe, Flo, and Cynthia Rose there. All of them start speaking at once, shooting questions and Aubrey just shakes her head and deliberately closes her classroom door in their faces.  

The school is suddenly abuzz with gossip about _Mrs._ Posen and her husband the Tall Army Hunk.  

Stacie doesn’t even hear the gossip until three days later when she’s finishing up a class and she’s having a fun discussion with some of her seniors.  

“No wonder Ms. Posen’s so stuck up all the time if her husband’s always away at war. Maybe now that he’s home he’ll take out that stick that’s up her ass,” she hears from the back of the room and her blood boils.   

“Congratulations, Mr. Graham,” Stacie says, zeroing in on the laughing teenager. “You’ve just earned yourself detention.”  

The class goes deadly silent, a ripple of scandalised “ooh” going round the room and Stacie’s a little upset that the jovial mood has been ruined.

“What?! You’re punishing me because you and Ms. Posen are friends?” the boy says indignantly.  

“I’m punishing you because I heard what you said and I don’t appreciate you being disrespectful towards a member of faculty, especially in my class, Mr. Graham.”  

“It’s not disrespectful if it’s true,” the teenager says cockily, holds his hand out for a high-five from one of his friends but receives none, all the students warily watching the exchange, too afraid of also being punished.  

“There you go, another detention.” 

“What? You can’t do that Ms. Conrad!” the teenager says, getting angry.  

“Try me,” Stacie says, standing up from her desk and the teenager has the good sense to keep his mouth shut when he sees that he’s not going to win this. “Homework,” Stacie says loudly, glances over the room and trying to ease the tension, and she grins when the class erupts into groans of complaint. “Chapter 15 and problems five through eight. See you tomorrow!”  

The class recognises the dismissal for what it is and slowly filter out of the room, and Stacie bids them goodbye, reaching for her phone. 

 

* * *

 

“I heard you gave Todd Graham detention yesterday,” Aubrey mentions casually over lunch. 

Stacie freezes, hand halfway to her sandwich, and she clears her throat.  

“Double detention,” Stacie corrects softly and Aubrey can’t help but smile wryly at her.  

“You didn’t have to.” 

“Yeah, I did,” Stacie says strongly, and Aubrey tilts her head sideways in question and Stacie watches the movement with a soft smile on her face. “I wasn’t going to let him talk about you like that. I can’t let that kind of behaviour fly.”  

Aubrey’s smiling coyly at her. “So if it had been another teacher you would have punished him all the same?” 

Stacie’s avoiding her eyes, and Aubrey knows she’s got her. “He might not have gotten the second detention,” Stacie confesses softly, finally looks up to see Aubrey watching her closely. 

Aubrey’s eyebrow twitches upwards, lips tugging into a smirk, but then her smile turns soft and Stacie can’t look away from her expressive face. 

“Thank you, Stacie,” Aubrey whispers after a while and the moment is charged, their gazes locked heatedly until Aubrey clears her throat and looks down at her lunch and Stacie has to swallow thickly to dissipate the pressure in her chest.

 

* * *

 

Stacie and Aubrey start having lunch together more frequently as they grow friendlier at school, to the point that Stacie’s students start teasing her about ‘being hot for Ms. Posen’ and Stacie laughs and denies it, but after a few weeks she humours her students and asks what would be so bad about having a crush on Aubrey and her students go quiet with surprise, until one student reminds everybody about Aubrey’s husband Tall Army Hunk and Stacie laughs.

Word of Stacie’s joke makes its way round the school and suddenly the school is filled with rumours of Ms. Conrad’s undying love and affection for Ms. Posen. 

 

* * *

 

Flo is the first one to snap, approaching Aubrey between classes and not meeting her eyes once and that’s the first sign Aubrey gets that nothing good can come from this exchange.

“I don’t know what kind of arrangement you have with your husband when he’s away but Stacie’s married too and maybe you should keep it outside of school,” Flo says quickly, looks embarrassed even as she says it before abruptly walking away, leaving behind a stunned Aubrey. 

When she tells Stacie, the brunette laughs loudly and when Aubrey glares at her, Stacie suggests they start having lunch in her classroom instead of the teacher’s lounge. 

 

* * *

 

Cynthia Rose approaches Stacie after school when they’re both walking to their cars. 

“So, there’s this rumour going around school…” she starts and Stacie’s already laughing.  

“When _isn’t_  there?”  

“Some freshmen saw you getting cozy with Aubrey last week,” Cynthia Rose points out and Stacie wants to scream.  

“I wasn’t—.” 

“Look, I get it. And I’m not judging, I’m just saying some students saw you so maybe you can keep it a little bit more lowkey,” Cynthia Rose suggests.  

“Lowkey?” Stacie asks immediately, not familiar with the term before very quickly realising that that’s not the part she should be tackling right now, she should be setting the record straight but it’s already too late. 

“On the downlow,” Cynthia Rose says with a laugh, patting Stacie’s shoulder and walking to her car.  

“What the fuck?” Stacie whispers to herself when she’s left standing alone in the parking lot. 

 

* * *

 

“Ms. Conrad?” 

Stacie looks up from her planner and smiles when she sees one of her juniors hovering in the doorway during morning recess.  

“Come in, Mikayla. What’s up?”  

The girl walks into the classroom and sits at the desk opposite Stacie’s. “You’re friends with Ms. Posen, right?”  

Stacie tilts her head at the unexpected question, afraid that this is going to be another one of those rumour discussions, but she nods in confirmation.  

“Well, I just went to her classroom to ask if she could help me out because I’m graduating next year and I’ve been looking over my college choices and I really want to go to NC Chapel Hill and I know she’s an alumna so I wanted to see if she could help me out or had any tips or anything really, and—” 

“Mikayla,” Stacie interrupts with a soft smile when she recognises the rambling tangent the girl is going on.  

“Oh, sorry, yeah, well I went to her classroom and she was crying? And I didn’t really know what to do but I know you two have lunch sometimes so I thought I’d come tell you,” Mikayla finally says and then Stacie’s frowning.  

“I’ll go see if she’s okay,” Stacie says, forcing herself to stop frowning and standing up, the teenage girl following her lead. “Thank you for telling me, Mikayla.” Stacie smiles sincerely at the girl who smiles back and leaves with a quick goodbye.  

Stacie closes her planner and all but runs from her classroom, quickly walking the familiar path towards Aubrey’s classroom. She pushes open the door, and Aubrey’s straightening her back and Stacie knows her well enough by now to see her try to sneakily wipe away tears. 

“Hey,” Stacie says softly and Aubrey relaxes again when she realises it’s Stacie, turns to the woman. “What’s going on?”  

Aubrey looks absolutely miserable and Stacie doesn’t hesitate to wrap her up in a hug.  

“Wesley’s in a hospital in Dubai,” Aubrey mumbles against the skin of Stacie’s shirt.  

“What happened?”  

“There was an IED and half his unit is dead. He’s in surgery right now. That’s all I know.”  

“I’m so sorry, honey,” Stacie says reassuringly, rubs her hand across the woman’s back in a soothing motion. Aubrey cries softly against her shoulder and Stacie’s not sure what else do to besides just holding her.  

Suddenly the door swings open, Beca barging into the room while looking down at a sheet of paper.  

“Hey, Posen, do you have a—” She stops in her tracks when she sees the two hugging, Aubrey’s face pressed into Stacie’s neck, and a shadow falls over her face. “Seriously? You’re both married! The least you can do is be discreet about it, jeez!” Beca says before storming out. 

Stacie’s anger flares with indignation, especially because Aubrey hasn’t even stopped crying against her shoulder while Beca had her little fit. She’s itching to go after Beca to set the record straight, loosening her arms, but Aubrey tightens her hold on Stacie, fists her fingers into the back of Stacie’s shirt to keep her close and Stacie relaxes.  

“Let her go,” Aubrey says softly, voice shaky and Stacie stands down, looks at the woman in her arms. “I’ll deal with her tomorrow.”  

Except she never does, because they’re nearing the end of the school year and Beca avoids Aubrey and Stacie like the plague and then everybody gets swamped with work and the gang barely spend any time together, and as a result, any rumour that there’s something going on between the easygoing new Physics teacher and the English department’s ice queen dies down. 

 

* * *

 

Three weeks later, Aubrey’s in a large toy store, looking at a display case with new Lego sets when she hears her name being called out. 

“Ms. Posen?”  

She looks up and smiles when she spots one of her seniors staring at her in surprise, and Aubrey knows how strange it is for students to see teachers ‘out in the wild’, remembers being a high schooler herself.  

“Emily, hi,” she says with a smile and the teenager looks even more frazzled when it’s confirmed that it is indeed Ms. Posen. 

Aubrey knows that she’s cultivated a reputation for being a hard ass, and she even likes it a little bit, but she really does love her students. Most other students wouldn’t have even said hi to her, so she appreciates the girl’s initiative.  

Emily opens her mouth to say something, but then her eyes go wide when a nerf bullet shoots past her and hits Aubrey square in the shoulder. She’s even more surprised when Aubrey lifts her right hand, holding a nerf gun, and shoots off several rounds.  

“Mercy, mercy!” Stacie shouts, holding her hands up and Emily turns to look at her.  

“Ms. Conrad?” the teenager says, flabbergasted, looking at Stacie standing at the end of the toy aisle.  

“Hey Emily!” Stacie greets with a happy smile, waves one of the hands she’s holding up but then she turns to look at Aubrey, who’s still pointing the nerf gun at her and has a hand on her hip, eyebrow arched in challenge. “I said mercy!”  

“I don’t trust you,” Aubrey says and Stacie stares her down, doesn’t answer her.  

Emily watches the exchange wide-eyed and in total confusion, takes a small step backwards and out of the line of fire.  

“You don’t have any weapons,” Aubrey says, but her eyes narrow and she doesn’t look entirely confident.  

Stacie tilts her head in challenge. “You sure about that?”  

In the time it takes Aubrey to doubt her and take her eyes off Stacie’s face to glance down her body, Stacie takes a step forwards and chucks her nerf gun at Aubrey. She doesn’t throw it hard enough, though, and Aubrey easily bats the plastic gun away with her left hand.  

Stacie’s backing away quickly, trying to avoid retaliation when Aubrey shoots off three more quick rounds from her nerf gun, two of the foam bullets hitting Stacie in the chest while the last one hits her forehead. 

Stacie’s foot catches on the edge of a display case and she yelps as she goes down, dropping to her knees.  

“Shit,” Stacie mutters, reaching down to rub her knee where it had hit the ground hard. Aubrey steps closer, keeps her nerf gun pointed at Stacie’s head, even as the woman quickly moves to hold both her hands up in surrender.  

“You always forget that I’m a better shot than you are,” Aubrey says.  

“I always forget that you’re a redneck,” Stacie sasses back.  

“Brave words for someone who has to do all the chores this month.”  

“Mercy, babe, please,” Stacie begs but it sounds fake, almost like she’s taunting Aubrey.

“Say the words.”  

“You’re always right.”  

Aubrey smiles and drops her arm, extending the other one to help Stacie up.  

“I’m just gonna go…” Emily says awkwardly, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb, and both adults turn to her, suddenly remembering she’s there.  

“Oh no, you two were talking, I’m sorry,” Stacie says, quickly putting her hands on Aubrey’s hips and pushing her towards Emily.   

“What’s up, Emily?” Aubrey asks, turning fully to the girl and giving the teenager her full attention.  

“It’s okay, it can wait,” the teenager says, shaking her head, still a little stunned by what she’d seen.  

“No, I’m sorry, you’re not interrupting anything,” Aubrey insists. “Go ahead. What did you want to say?”  

“I just wanted to tell you that I got into NYU. I got the letter this morning,” she says shyly.  

“That’s great! I’m so proud of you!” Aubrey says, lighting up and the teenager looks up in surprise, her own smile widening.  

“You got into NYU?! That’s amazing!” Stacie says, moving closer and holds up her hand for Emily to high five, which she does enthusiastically.  

“Mr. Swanson told me that you added an extra letter of recommendation to my application so I wanted to say thank you.”  

“You’re welcome, Emily, you deserved it,” Aubrey says with a cool smile and Stacie can tell that she’s so incredibly proud of her student. 

“Thanks, Ms. Posen. See you tomorrow, Ms. Conrad,” the teenager says with a small wave.  

“See ya, Emily,” Stacie calls out and watches as the teenager walks away.  

“You’re ruining my reputation as an ice queen,” Aubrey says, turning to Stacie.  

“You’re ruining your own damn reputation. You didn’t have to add the letter of recommendation or shoot me dead in this aisle,” Stacie throws back and Aubrey nods, steps closer to her.  

“I win. Again,” Aubrey whispers and Stacie’s eyes flicker down to Aubrey’s lips, but then the blonde pinches her side and Stacie jumps away with a squeal.  

Neither of them notices the teenager lingering just around the corner, watching them with interest. 

 

* * *

 

On a Friday a few weeks later Aubrey goes looking for Stacie after classes end. She finds Stacie slumped across one of the couches in the science department’s lounge, head on the armrest and eyes closed. 

“Ready to go?” Aubrey asks, smiling softly at the woman.  

Stacie lets out a long, suffering groan, cracks open an eye and tilts her head sideways, opens the other eye so she can look at Aubrey properly. “Gimme a couple of minutes.”  

Aubrey takes pity on her and walks over to the couch, dropping her stuff next to it before perching on the couch next to Stacie. Stacie has an arm flung over her head, the other one dangling off the side of the couch, fingers almost reaching the floor, and Aubrey softly reaches for that hand, lifts it onto her lap and plays with Stacie’s fingers. 

“The sooner you go home, the sooner you can get naked and take a bath,” Aubrey suggests, softly scraping her nails across Stacie’s wrist and Stacie’s eyes slide closed again with a soft, pitiful moan, but she makes no move to get up.  

Aubrey shifts and Stacie thinks she’s getting up, but then Aubrey’s trailing her fingers across Stacie’s cheek, and Stacie opens her eyes long enough to see Aubrey’s face hovering above hers.  

Reaching up, she cups Aubrey’s neck and brings her closer and Aubrey melts against her when their lips meet in a lazy kiss. Aubrey kisses her back happily, hand sliding into her hair to tilt Stacie’s head and it’s such a nice kiss that when the door swings open and Aubrey pulls away to see who it is, Stacie whines in protest.  

“Hey Stacie, the girls were wonderi—oh,” Chloe says, freezing in the doorway. Stacie closes her eyes in annoyance.  

Aubrey shifts away from Stacie, sits up straight and looks up to meet Chloe’s eyes, gaze briefly flickering behind the redhead and just as she suspected, standing behind Chloe are Beca, Flo, and Cynthia Rose, all frowning and looking different shades of displeased.  

“Chlo—” Aubrey starts but Chloe shakes her head vigorously and interrupts. 

“I didn’t want to believe them when they told me you were having an affair, but I guess…” She trails off accusingly and Aubrey’s taken aback by the words, a pang of hurt going through her that her friends all think of her like this.  

Stacie sees Aubrey’s face fall, can see how much Chloe’s words have actually upset Aubrey and Stacie's annoyance immediately flares up and all traces of exhaustion are gone and she’s suddenly alive with angry energy.  

“Affair?!” Stacie exclaims, looking between a dejected Aubrey and the group of women hovering in the doorway. She finally sits up, swings her legs onto the floor to sit up straight. “Are you—?” she starts but isn’t sure what to say, turns to Aubrey. “Bree, this is getting ridiculous. Can you talk to your friends?” She presses a quick kiss to Aubrey’s cheek before standing up, reaching for her bag. “I’m going home.”  

“Hey!” Aubrey says indignantly, turning to Stacie, and Stacie stops dead in her tracks at the irritation coming off Aubrey in waves. “Sit down!”  

Aubrey is in what Stacie fondly refers to as ‘angry teacher mode’ and it’s not focused on Stacie often, which means that when it is, ‘angry teacher mode’ is very effective, and Stacie closes her mouth, retort dying on her lips as she silently sits back down on the couch.  

“You four,” Aubrey says, turning towards the remaining women. “Come in and sit down, please,” she instructs, and even though there’s a smile on Aubrey’s face, it’s a little threatening and they all shuffle in, a mixture of confusion and anger as they squeeze onto the other couch. 

Beca has her arms crossed and she looks downright pissed as she glares at Stacie. Chloe looks incredibly uncomfortable, as does Flo. Cynthia Rose looks only slightly perturbed, and out of the four, she seems the calmest.  

Stacie crosses her arms when she sees Beca scowling at her. “What?” she snaps and she suddenly feels like such a teenager.  

Aubrey shoots her a look, so she uncrosses her arms and stops glowering back at Beca, scoots closer to Aubrey.  

“Do I have to be here for this?” Stacie whispers to Aubrey, whose exasperation melts away briefly as she pecks Stacie’s lips and reaches out to tenderly smoothen out Stacie’s forehead, encouraging the woman to stop frowning.  

“Yes.”  

“Fine,” she gives petulantly, but there’s no malice there. “But you owe me big time for this drama.”  

“I promise,” Aubrey says with a sweet smile and then Stacie relaxes, leaning back and laying her arm on the couch behind Aubrey’s shoulders, fingers softly playing with a couple of strands of Aubrey’s hair.  

The four other women follow the gesture closely, and when Stacie flits her eyes over each of them, she sees Cynthia Rose’s jaw go slack with understanding and Stacie has to suppress a grin.  

Aubrey also catches it, because she turns to the woman with a smile. “Cynthia Rose?”  

“You’re not having an affair, are you?” 

“No.”  

Flo, Chloe, and Beca erupt, start speaking at the same time and over each other and Aubrey has to call out a loud “guys!” to get them to quiet down.  

“What do you call it if you don’t call it an affair? Amigovia? Interdisciplinary studying?” Flo quips and Stacie has to snort at that. 

Cynthia Rose actually laughs out loud and Aubrey chuckles and even Chloe manages a small smile. Beca’s still looking angry, though, and Aubrey can see it.  

“Beca?” she prods softly.  

“Are you kidding me?!” the woman explodes. “You’re kissing and hugging and you want to say there’s nothing going on when you’re clearly cheating on your husbands?!”  

“Can I kiss my wife in peace, goddamn?!” Stacie snaps, getting real tired of Beca’s misplaced judgments. Aubrey looks up at the ceiling with a deep sigh, before turning to Stacie, displeased with the outburst. “Sorry,” Stacie mumbles quickly.  

“Wife?” Chloe asks softly and Cynthia Rose is nodding, having already cottoned on.  

“I am confused,” Flo says bluntly.  

“You’re married to two people?!” Beca exclaims and it seems to make her even angrier.  

“What?” Aubrey says in disbelief at how dense Beca is being. “No!” Quickly glaring at Stacie for making the situation worse with her outburst, she turns back to Beca and says, “I’m only married to Stacie.”  

“Gee thanks,” Stacie mumbles and Aubrey shoots her an exasperated look.  

“What about Tall Army Hunk?” Chloe asks and Aubrey’s lips twitch as she tries not to smile.  

Out of the corner of her eye she can see Stacie open her mouth before quickly closing it again, so Aubrey turns to the brunette, eyebrow arched. “What?”  

“It can wait,” Stacie says quickly, can sense that Aubrey’s close to snapping at her.  

“No, please, let’s get it all out right now,” Aubrey says and it’s a little too jovial to be genuine and Stacie’s eyes widen, but she’s not really one to refuse Aubrey when she’s in this mood.  

“I told you they call him Tall Army Hunk,” Stacie says and the words sound more scared than smug.  

“Okay,” Aubrey says softly, after staring at Stacie in disbelief for a few moments, turns back to the four women on the other couch. “I’m married to Stacie, not ‘Tall Army Hunk’. We’ve been married for six years. I didn’t tell anybody at first because I didn’t want to get fired by our super homophobic principal when I started working here and we weren’t all close back then, and everything snowballed out of control and you were all talking about my husband and there wasn’t really a point in correcting it.”  

The women are silent as they let the information sink in.  

“But Stacie’s been teaching here all year,” Cynthia Rose points out and Stacie nods.  

“I was just starting out and settling in, I didn’t want anybody treating me differently because I’m married to a member of the English department. And we know how gossipy high school can be so we wanted to keep it private, like our own dirty little secret," Stacie says with a shrug.  

Aubrey rolls her eyes at the last part, but she’s still smiling so Stacie counts it as a win.  

“What about Tall Army Hunk?” Flo asks, repeating Chloe’s earlier question.  

“What about him?” Aubrey asks, turning back to the women.  

“He signed in as Wesley Posen,” Beca says quickly and it’s the first time she’s spoken since her outburst and they all turn to her in surprise. “What? I was curious so I checked the visitor’s log.”  

“You’re not allowed to pretend like you’re above gossip anymore, Mitchell,” Cynthia Rose teases.  

“None of you nerds texted me when he was here and you all got a look at him so I needed an edge,” Beca defends herself.  

“He brought you flowers on Valentine’s Day!” Flo points out, clearly still on the subject.  

“He got leave to spend Valentine’s Day with his wife and kids. He’s been in Iraq since the summer and I didn’t know he’d be coming home so he swung by school to surprise me.”  

Flo and Beca still look confused, so Stacie interjects quickly with, “He’s her brother,” and sees comprehension wash over them.  

“You’re married to each other,” Chloe says softly, and Stacie and Aubrey nod. “Why didn’t you say anything when they tried to talk to you about it?” Chloe asks, pointing to the other women.  

“They didn’t really try to talk to us about it,” Aubrey explains and Flo nods, cheeks flushing with embarrassment as she recalls her interaction with Aubrey.  

“I thought it was funny at first but then the accusations kept coming and you guys would walk away before we even got a chance to explain,” Stacie says, pointedly looking at Beca.   

“You drive two separate cars to work!” Beca exclaims and Aubrey smiles.  

“I go to pilates every morning before school—”  

“And I don’t,” Stacie interjects. “Because I like sleep.”  

“Going to pilates would be good for you,” Aubrey says, looking sideways at Stacie.  

“But god, at what cost?” Stacie says with a tortured look.  

“It’s good for your health and you’ll be more flexible,” Aubrey states.  

“I’m plenty flexible, and I don’t hear you complaining,” Stacie flirts, drags her fingers across Aubrey’s back and Aubrey rolls her eyes and shoots her an admonishing look but still leans in closer.  

“I’m such a bad lesbian,” Cynthia Rose says, and it’s a little louder than she’d intended, breaking Aubrey and Stacie’s moment as everybody turns to look at her. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it.”  

“You’re married to each other,” Flo whispers, finally fully coming to terms with the information. “That’s so cute!”  

“Aubrey?” Chloe says softly, remembering her sharp words earlier and how wrong they’d been.  

Aubrey turns to her with a soft smile, but her eyes are guarded and Chloe can see that she’s still hurt.  

“I’m sorry,” she says, and Aubrey can see how guilty she feels so she does forgive Chloe.  

“It’s okay,” Aubrey says with a soft shrug. “I’m sorry too.”  

“We’re okay?” Chloe asks and then she gets a genuine smile from Aubrey.  

“We’re okay,” she confirms with a nod.  

Chloe nudges Beca then, jabs her elbow into the brunette’s side and Beca yelps loudly.  

“Ow, dude, what the hell?”  

“You should apologise for yelling,” Flo says, voice flat.  

Beca purses her lips, really looks like she’s not going to do it, but then she manages a quick, “Sorry.”  

Aubrey sees that Stacie wants to fight it, so she puts her hand on the woman’s thigh to stop her.  

“Thank you,” Aubrey says and Stacie relaxes against her.  

“In my defence, you guys were being really sketchy about it,” Beca adds and Aubrey rolls her eyes.  

“You know what I’m excited about?” Cynthia Rose says, and when Flo meets her eyes they both nod.  

“Seeing the rest of school find out about this?” Flo says and they’re nodding again.  

Stacie laughs when Aubrey pinches the bridge of her nose and whispers, “oh god.”  

“This is what happens when you don’t come clean, babe,” Stacie teases.  

“And people think you’re married to Tall Army Hunk,” Beca points out and they all burst out laughing at Aubrey’s misery.  

“What did you all come here for?” Aubrey says after the laughter dies down.  

“Oh! Right!” Chloe says. “We wanted to see if Stacie wanted to join us for a late lunch.”  

“Was I invited?” Aubrey asks sharply, but Chloe knows her well enough to recognise the veiled amusement.  

“We couldn’t find you, but—” Chloe doesn’t finish, gestures to between Stacie and Aubrey and shrugs. “Yeah.”  

Aubrey twists to look at Stacie, and they don’t say anything but they’re clearly having a conversation. The four other women watch the interaction with interest and amazement until finally both Stacie and Aubrey nod and Aubrey’s turning back to them.  

“We’ll join you next time,” Aubrey says and Chloe nods. Flo is looking at them in pure fascination, and Cynthia Rose has to laugh at Flo’s expression.  

“Okay! Have a nice weekend,” Chloe says and gets up from the couch, urging the others to follow her lead.  

“Let’s go?” Aubrey says when they’re gone, turning to Stacie.  

Stacie wraps her arm around Aubrey’s middle and tugs her closer, brushing her lips against Aubrey’s neck.  

“Ms. Posen?” Stacie teases, nips at Aubrey’s earlobe. “Will you still get naked and take a bath with me even though I’ve been bad?”  

She can feel Aubrey try to resist, can feel her body shake with her effort so she plays dirty and trails her fingers down Aubrey’s spine and the blonde actually shudders in response.  

“Meet me at home and you’ll find out,” Aubrey says, but her voice cracks and it doesn’t come out as flirty as she’d intended. With a hand tugging at Stacie’s hair, she pulls the woman away from her neck and kisses Stacie deeply.  

“Yeah, let’s go home.” 

 

* * *

 

Stacie’s revelling in the quiet of her classroom, watching as 22 freshmen in front of her quietly work on their assignments, and she leans back in her chair, ready to relax, when: 

“You set yourself on fire?!”  

Stacie’s head snaps up, meets Aubrey’s angry gaze, and suddenly 22 teenagers turn to stare at Aubrey.  

“Only a little bit,” Stacie says, tries to shake her head and pretend it’s all okay but she knows she’s not being very convincing.  

Aubrey looks pissed, so Stacie sighs and gets up. 

“Back to work,” Stacie calls out as she walks to the back of the classroom, and most of the students pretend to go back to their worksheets, even though Stacie knows they’re all eavesdropping.  

“You set yourself on fire?” Aubrey hisses when she’s close enough. 

“Outside,” Stacie says, pushing the blonde out of the room and closing the door behind her.  

“Stacie, what the fuck?” Aubrey says, and Stacie can see that her hands are actually shaking.  

“It was an accident. One of the Chemistry teachers used our conductor and didn’t reset it so when I hooked it up to some wires it burst into flames and caught my sleeve. I put out the fire immediately and it barely touched me. I’m fine,” Stacie insists, holds up her right arm to show Aubrey the charred fabric of her shirt with a soft out. “I’m actually more bummed out about this shirt. It’s my favourite.”  

Aubrey knows that Stacie’s just trying to make light of the situation to calm her down but the joke is totally unhelpful and she knows it.  

Stacie looks around the hallway, and when she sees it’s empty she steps closer and wraps her arms around Aubrey and pulls her closer.  

“I’m totally fine,” she repeats and Aubrey moves closer, loops her arms around Stacie and sighs deeply, almost deflating.  

“You scared the shit out of me,” Aubrey whispers, closes her eyes with a sigh when Stacie presses her lips against the blonde’s forehead. “Don’t do that again.”  

“I mean, I’ll try not to but it was an accident, y’know?” Stacie jokes and Aubrey pulls away enough to glare at her. “Who tattled?”  

“Literally the whole class,” Aubrey says. “They came in talking about how much cooler Physics is than English because you can actually set things and teachers on fire.”  

Stacie growls and it makes Aubrey smile, and the sight makes Stacie melt. “I’m sorry I scared you.”  

“It’s okay, just text me next time, okay? I’d rather not hear it from a bunch of sixteen-year-olds.”  

“I promise.”  

Aubrey seems to finally be completely calmed down but Stacie doesn’t stop rubbing her back.  

“I’m sorry for barging into your class.”  

“No worries, it’s just freshmen. I’m sure this is the most teacher drama they’ve seen all year.”  

Aubrey rolls her eyes but she leans in, quickly kisses Stacie on the lips.  

“I’ll leave you to it.”  

“Bye honey,” Stacie says, teasingly adding on the term of endearment and laughing when she sees Aubrey crinkle her nose in disgust.  

When Stacie turns back to go to her classroom, she hears students scrambling to their desks, chairs scraping and loud footsteps and she rolls her eyes. She waits outside the door for a few seconds before going in and is surprised to see that all the students have successfully made it back to their desks and seem to be working hard.  

“Any questions?” she asks, settling back into her chair.  

“Why does Ms. Posen care if you set yourself on fire?”  

“Any questions about the material?” Stacie asks, pointedly looking at the girl who had asked the question.  

A boy on the left raises his hand and Stacie turns to him, nodding for him to go ahead.  

“It’s about question 6?” he starts and waits for Stacie to reach for the textbook and flip it open. “Why does Ms. Posen care if you set yourself on fire?”  

Stacie’s shoulders slump and she loudly closes her book when the class erupts into giggles and she glares at the boy.  

“That’s none of your business, Trevor.”  

“Come on, Ms. Conrad!” another girl pipes up. “We saw you hugging each other!”  

“How is that possible, Savannah?” Stacie asks and the girl sits back guiltily. “How could you see me hug her if you were all in your seats doing your worksheets?”  

The room is quiet as nobody wants to implicate themselves.  

“So you don’t deny that you were hugging her?”  

Stacie turns to the girl sitting right in front of her who had whispered the words. “Mary?” Stacie whispers in betrayal but the girl just shrugs.  

“Ms. Posen cares if I set myself on fire because she cares about me,” Stacie explains.  

“She came all the way here to yell at you, though,” Trevor points out.  

“Yeah, she must really care,” Savannah pipes up.  

Stacie decides then, in that split second, to tell the truth to her freshman class. She considers all the school dynamics and the timing and the students’ gossipy nature and decides to just go for it.  

“Well I would hope she cares since we’re married,” Stacie says flippantly, rifling through some papers on her desk and the whole class goes silent with shock. She’d told them at the start of the year that she was married after one of the students asked why she wore two rings on a chain around her neck, so it’s not news that she’s married, but that she’s married to _English teacher Ms. Posen_?  

“Isn’t she married to some army guy?” Savannah asks.  

“What makes you think that?” Stacie asks calmly and she can practically see the cogs working in the teenager’s head. “You guys should focus all of this obsessive energy on your worksheets since it’s going to be your homework, so if you finish it in class you have no homework!”  

Most students still look floored by Stacie’s information but one by one they start quietly working again and Stacie watches them with a smile. She reaches for her phone and types out a quick text to Aubrey. 

 

* * *

‘ _just a heads up, I told my freshmen we’re married - S <3_'

* * *

 

Aubrey reads the text with a smile after she’s finished with her lesson for the class but hasn’t dismissed them yet. The students are milling about, talking and laughing amongst themselves and just as she’s about to dismiss them early, one of her students pipes up. 

“Ms. Posen?”  

“Yes?”  

“Is your husband in the Army?” she asks and Aubrey has the sudden thought that it’s truly astonishing how quickly gossip travels through the school. 

“Not that it’s any of your business, Sienna, but I don’t have a husband.”  

She sees a wave of confusion go through the class. Several people speak up, but the loudest one, a boy, says, “But you’re married!”  

“I am.”  

“Then how is it possible you don’t have a husband?”  

“I’m going to give you a minute to figure that one out, Kevin,” Aubrey says pointedly, and she hears some of the girls giggle.  

“There’s this rumour that you’re married to Ms. Conrad,” Sienna says.  

“Sienna, you have a sister who’s a freshman, don’t you? Savannah?”  

The girl stares back at her defiantly and it’s all the answer she needs.  

She hears some of the boys in the back whisper to each other.  

“Ms. Conrad? Who’s that?” 

“She’s the new Physics teacher.”  

“Oh, the tall hot one?”  

“Yeah, with the big t—.”  

“Michael!” Aubrey calls out and the boy who had been speaking stops in surprise, eyes widening at Aubrey’s tone.  

“Yes, Ms. Posen?”  

“I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t use that type of language in my class.”  

Michael looks downright terrified of her, and she figures her icy glare is enough of a punishment.  

“But you’re married to Ms. Conrad, right?” Emily pipes up and Aubrey turns to the teenager, who’s looking a little guilty but not avoiding Aubrey’s eyes. She can’t lie to the teenager who had seen her and Stacie shoot nerf bullets at each other, and a faint smile flickers across Aubrey’s face to reassure the teenager that it’s okay that she asked. 

“Yes, Ms. Conrad is my wife.” 

 

* * *

 

“You made it to your first prom,” Aubrey whispers to Stacie when they’re nearing the end of the night and chaperoning duty has died down. They’re leaning against the wall by the punch bowl, watching students dance and have fun. 

“This is like my seventh prom,” Stacie says and doesn’t miss the way Aubrey rolls her eyes.  

“You made it through your first year,” Aubrey says, and she’s exasperated enough that Stacie turns to her with a sweet smile, reaches for her hand and tangles their fingers, lifting their linked hands and pressing a kiss to Aubrey’s palm. “I’m really proud of you.”  

Stacie looks down bashfully at the words.  

“Yeah, I’m surprised I made it through the year,” Stacie admits and Aubrey leans into her. “I remember your first year being hell and how you were tired all the time but I don’t think I ever really understood it until now.”  

“But is it better than playing mad scientist in academia?”  

“Are you kidding?” Stacie says, tugs softly on their intertwined hands until Aubrey turns to face her. “I get to teach young people and inspire them and push them to become better versions of themselves while instilling in them a love for STEM. That’s a million times better than being bound by a university’s research standards and endlessly applying for grant money.”  

Aubrey smiles brightly at her words, had known all along that Stacie would love teaching.  

“But you know what the best part is?” Stacie asks, voice dropping low as she quickly glances around at the room before stepping closer.  

“What?”  

“I get to spend way more time with my super awesome wife.”  

Aubrey’s smile becomes blinding, her cheeks flushing with warmth and she has to bite her lip to control her expression but it’s too late because Stacie’s looking at her with the exact same expression and Stacie looks so _happy_ that it’s overwhelming and Aubrey has to look away, looks back to the room.  

“I love you,” Aubrey says after a while, looking at Stacie again.  

Stacie has a shit-eating grin on her face as she bumps her shoulder against Aubrey’s to acknowledge her words.  

Emily comes bounding over, tugging along a boy and Aubrey and Stacie reluctantly move a little apart, Stacie pouting when Aubrey pulls her hand out of Stacie’s.  

Emily hesitates for a second, before moving forwards anyway and hugging Aubrey lightly, then Stacie. “I just wanted to say thanks again for everything this year and ask if I could get a picture with you two?”  

“Of course,” Stacie answers because she can see that Aubrey is still a little surprised about the hug, and then Emily is handing her phone to the boy she’s dragged along and standing between Aubrey and Stacie. The boy takes the picture and Emily inspects it, smiling in approval.  

“Do you want a picture of just you two?” Emily asks once she puts away her phone.  

Stacie can see that Aubrey’s going to refuse because she doesn’t like having her picture taken, so Stacie quickly says, “Yes!”  

Aubrey shoots her a look but Stacie’s smiling so widely as she hands over her phone that she doesn’t mean it.  

“C’mere, you,” Stacie says, wraps her arm around Aubrey’s middle and pulls her closer. Aubrey giggles softly at Stacie’s eagerness, wraps her own arm around Stacie’s middle and when they turn to look at Emily, the girl isn’t even holding up the phone, she’s just staring at them as if they’re a pile of adorable baby animals that she’s smitten with. 

“Emily?” Aubrey says and it snaps the girl out of her trance as she lifts the phone and takes a few photos.  

“You guys are _so_ cute,” she says, checking that the pictures are okay before handing the phone back with a grin.  

She bids them goodbye, tells them they’re going to another party, and Stacie hastily calls after her, “Have fun and be safe!” but Emily’s already gone.  

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the last song of the night!” the DJ announces and receives a chorus of booing. “So if you have a dance partner or not, I want to see every single person on the dancefloor to close off the night. Here we go!”  

“Dance with me?” Stacie says, reaching for Aubrey’s hand again.  

“How can I say no?” Aubrey flirts and Stacie’s smile is blinding as she leads Aubrey to the dancefloor.  

A couple of boys wolf whistle when Stacie slides her hand around Aubrey, and Stacie quickly shushes them.  

“Pay attention to your own dates,” Stacie says with a laugh and Aubrey’s shaking her head with fond exasperation. Aubrey slides her hands up Stacie’s arms, loops them around her neck and lets Stacie pull her closer, hands on Aubrey’s waist.  

They sway together and when the song starts winding down, Aubrey pulls away just enough so she can look into Stacie’s eyes.   

“Back next year?” 

“Can’t wait.”  

**Author's Note:**

> Amigovia is this amazing, under-appreciated word we have in Colombia that's basically a mix of 'amiga/o' and 'novia/o' (friend, girl/boyfriend respectively) and it basically means friends with benefits and I love the word so much like you guys wouldn't understand


End file.
